Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth is an aged, eccentric inventor, founder and owner of Planet Express and an honorary Globetrotter. He is crotchety, absent-minded and sometimes brilliant, most well-known for his work in 30th century robotics. In 2999, he was the last known relative of Philip J. Fry, later, Professor Farnsworth discovered that he had fathered a son, as well as the clone that he had kept hidden. In addition, he also serves as a tenured professor at Mars University teaching the Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields. Farnsworth is an inventor of both useful and impractical things, some of which are extremely dangerous devices such as his Doomsday devices.

Personality wise, he varies from callous disregard to sentimental affection. He has no objection to sending his crew to missions which may eventually mean death to his crew, and has sent previous crews to their deaths before. Farnsworth is the oldest living member of the Academy of Inventors, where he often competes with his arch nemesis, Dr. Ogden Wernstrom.

Personality

Hubert Farnsworth is a mad scientist, though how extreme this tendency is varies depending on how writers feel best suits the episode. Farnsworth's name comes from Philo Farnsworth, who invented the television. In addition, his first name, Hubert, may come from Eric Kaplan's former professor, Hubert Dreyfus. The only thing his name has in common with the name of Philip J. Fry is the unsettled "J." as their middle initial, but this may just be a common joke Matt Groening sets for his characters.

Though Professor Farnsworth is a genius, he is also very senile and sometimes forgets things that had happened only moments earlier. He also has a habit of saying "Good news, everyone", which more often than not means bad news. He is known for following up his statements with completely contradictory statements, such as his definition of Space Honey from "The Sting". Hubert also often appears indifferent to the wellfare of his crew, often sending them on dangerous missions which could get them killed, though it's highly unlikely that he does this intentionally. He could also sometimes have periods of maniacal laughter. However Farnsworth isn't actually a bad person and appears to share some level of friendship with the other members of Planet Express. He also cares about his clone, Cubert, treating him as though he were his biological son.

Farnsworth also enjoys public nudity, and may have been convicted. His urge to undress becomes much greater around Xmas.

One of the most frequent recurring gags in the show is that Farnsworth says/acts something but immediately the truth was that his intentions were the opposite compared to how it seemed. One example is in That Darn Katz! where Farnsworth complains that he is trying to run a meeting while the Planet Express Crew try to pet Professor Katz's cat then he states that means he should be the one petting the kitty.

Biography

Early Life

Hubert J. Farnsworth was born on 9 April, 2841 in a prison – although claimed until 3001 that it was actually 2851 – in the nerdiest slum of New New York, Hell's Laboratory. At age 8, he learned to read, albeit while still in diapers.

Hubert enjoyed his teenage years as a nerd with an affection for role-playing games. After 14 years of graduate school, Farnsworth became a scientist and designed such things as fast cars, trendy night spots and beautiful women, all out of his one-room apartment. Evidence suggests that he may also have been a hippie and a disco boy, possibly during graduate school. In The Near Death-Wish, it is revealed that Hubert spent 25 years in a mental institution at the behest of his parents.

Planet Express

After numerous tries with Mom, and with a need for money to fund his research, he founded Planet Express, an interstellar delivery company, on 2961. Already, he hired his friend of 34 years, Dr. John A. Zoidberg as the company's staff doctor. He hired his first crew already, but unfortunately they were swallowed by a Four-dimensional space whale. In addition, he hired Hermes Conrad as the company's bureaucrat some time later. In 2998, Amy Wong entered the company as an engineering intern, but has since remained in the company for several years. Also in his employ is Scruffy, the company janitor who lives in the basement of Planet Express.

Farnsworth has had numerous crews, whom he frequently sends to their doom. As a result many have died horribly or gone missing. Shortly after one such instance, late on the 31st of December 2999, he learned that he was not the last surviving member of his family. His long lost and far removed uncle, Philip J. Fry, had just been defrosted. Fry, Turanga Leela and Bender Bending Rodríguez were hired early the next morning and have been his longest surviving crew, who despite 12 years in the company remain alive.

Farnsworth doesn't always just send his crew on simple delivery missions, but has sent them on charity missions as well as highly controversial missions. Even when his crew and company is unrelated or unsuited to the task, he isn't shy to send them along anyway.

Legacy

As a member of the Academy of Inventors, the Professor has created many things. Often these don't live up to his expectations and are ridiculed by his fellow inventors. Occasionally, however, they can help save the day; the Smell-O-Scope for instance was laughed at by colleagues and Wernstrom had his revenge by giving it a poor grade, shortly afterward it detected a giant ball of garbage in space that was on a collision course with New New York. After the Planet Express crew averted the crisis, Wernstrom once more announced a thirst for revenge.

After his 150th birthday party, Hubert realised that he had no one to continue his work when he is gone. After days hidden in the lab, he emerged announcing that the clone he'd been growing the past twelve years would be his heir. Unfortunately, Cubert did not want to follow in his footsteps. Farnsworth finally decided that his life was over, and revealed his actual age, 160, the age at which Sunset Squad Robots would come and take him away to the Near Death Star. Soon after a rescue by his crew, Cubert finally decided to carry on with Farnsworth's research.

Corporate Takeover

After a brief reunion with Mom on Mother's Day of the previous year, 3002 saw Farnsworth's company taken over twice. On the first occasion, Cubert and Hermes' son Dwight expanded their paper route to consume Planet Express. Soon after this takeover, Awesome Express fell apart due to poor management. On the second occasion, a shareholder meeting resulted in a mysterious stranger taking over as CEO from Farnsworth. Castle's running of the company was more successful, despite no deliveries being made during this time. Inevitably the company dropped back to its original poor stock price after the new CEO's death and Farnsworth's reinstatement. Planet Express was also taken over by The Scammers because Farnsworth unwittingly signed a document transferring ownership of Planet Express to them, thinking it was a form to accept the money from a Spanish lottery.

Old Problems

When a heatwave hits and the usual method to counteract global warming fail, the Professor is forced to admit that all modern robots are descended from his designs, which produce lots of pollution. The scientists at the conference plan to destroy the robots is soon thwarted and Hubert received a medal for saving the planet and its robots. About a week later after his staff decided that he had become too old, they took him to The Bubbling Geezer a visit that resulted in everyone becoming younger. The eventual resolution of this situation took them to the Fountain of Aging, where the waters made him "even older" than he had been.

Dark Matters

Over the years, Farnsworth's feud with Wernstrom continued to grow, and when an anomaly forms a short distance from the Earth the pair compete in Deathball to decide who will investigate. After Farnsworth's investigation proved unsuccessful the pair found themselves united for the first time since the pop quiz as they collaborated in research together, protested and shared a prison cell. But their new found friendship fell apart once more following an inter-universe relationship with Yivo.

When Mom faked a dark matter shortage in 3008 in order to increase the price of dark matter worldwide, Farnsworth finally told the tale of how he discovered it, and decided to end it all, so that scientists could spend their time on developing cleaner fuels, such as Whale Oil. Farnsworth managed to enter Mom's dark matter mine in Alaska, which turned out to be a Nibblonian farm, where Mom had kept Nibblonians imprisoned for years to produce dark matter. However, with the help of his crew and his long lost son Igner, Farnsworth managed to bring the crystals close enough together to render dark matter useless. After converting to whale oil and receiving a few bribes for scientific endorsements, he joined the rest of the crew on a journey into a wormhole. Although most of the crew were killed as the ship crashed into Earth in early 3010, he survives and brings them back to life.

He would later return to Mom's company to work on creating actual robots, but back then, robots were stiff moving and not very efficient, however, when he sacrificed fuel efficiency, he succeeded, unfortunately, this robot design also caused global warming. Why he left Mom this time remains unsettled, but it may be because he once realised she was evil.

On a third occasion, Farnsworth was once again at the company with Mom, where he discovered the secret of Dark Matter, around the time where Mom's sons were born. But when he found out she had left him for Dr. Ogden Wernstrom, he left once again.

While his relationship with Mom has certainly been his largest, it has not been his only one. During a brief period of regaining the appearance of youth using stem cells from GeneWorks, S.K.G., he found a girl willing to date him, although she also turned out to have used her tax rebate for a belly ring to make her appear thinner. There was also a brief fling with Hattie while they were on the Titanic. However since then, Hattie seems to hold a strong hatred towards him; accusing him of being a "cat hater".

In the episode "Proposition Infinity", it is shown that the Professor had a 40 year long relationship with a woman whom he met before Mom. This woman cheated on the Professor with a robot which caused the Professor's hatred towards robossexual couples. It was also later revealed that that woman was herself a robot, and her name was Unit 47.

A creepy utilization of his body occurred in "The Prisoner of Benda", when he trades bodies with Amy. Amy then proceeds to trade bodies with Leela, causing Fry to himself trade bodies with Dr. Zoidberg. Leela used Farnsworth's body to prove that her relationship with Fry is partially physical. At dinner, Leela (in Farnsworth's Body) is disgusted by Fry (in Zoidberg's body), and vice-versa. When Leela-Farnsworth tells Fry-Zoidberg to prove his love, Fry-Zoidberg passionately kisses Leela-Farnsworth. This eventually leads to Leela-Farnsworth having Intercourse with Fry-Zoidberg. this marks the first known time he physically slept with a male. Mentally, however, Leela was the one who slept with Fry-Zoidberg.

Additional Info

Trivia

Professor Farnsworth's eyes

Professor Farnsworth's reading glasses

He was named Farnsworth in honor of Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of modern television, which was unveiled to America at the same World's Fair as the Futurama exhibit that the show is named for, in 1939. Additionally, the name Hubert roughly translates as bright mind in old Germanic.

Throughout the series, we are never shown the professor's eyes (if Cubert is counted he has blue eyes), until the comic "Downsized!". This may or may not have been authorized by Matt Groening.

Has the same blood type as Amy Wong. He has stated that is one of the reasons why he likes "keeping her around" (1ACV02).

Farnsworth has a gut (which resembles that of Bart Simpson's) but in "The Prisoner of Benda" it is stated that he is underweight.

His bank account number is 299792458, which is the speed of light in meters per second.

A certain running gag with the writers is to drop hints in the show that the professor is a cannibal of sorts.

Also known as the Catman, due to his ability to land on his feet after falling great distances. However, it has apparently been so long since the last time he used this ability that even the Professor himself has forgotten why they called him the Catman.

Has a "Thug Life" tattoo on his back.

His driving position is up against the windscreen of the ship, a parody of the stereotypes of elderly drivers.

Like his extremely distant relative Fry, he had red hair when he was younger.

At the start of the series his voice was nearly identical to Fry's, only slightly deeper and much older-sounding. As time went on however, the Professor's voice became much more distinct from Fry's, partly due to concerns by the creators that viewers with poor or no eyesight would find it hard to distinguish between the two.

Professor Farnsworth: Good news, everyone! There's a report on TV with some very bad news!

Professor Farnsworth: Goodbye, cruel world. Goodbye, cruel lamp. Goodbye, cruel velvet drapes, lined with what would appear to be some sort of cruel muslin and the cute little pom-pom curtain pull cords. Cruel though they may be...

Professor Farnsworth: Oh, how awful. Did he at least die painlessly? To shreds, you say. Well, how is his wife holding up? To shreds, you say.

Professor Farnsworth: [About altering the timeline.] And remember, don't do anything that affects anything, unless it turns out you were supposed to, in which case, for the love of God, don't not do it!

Professor Farnsworth: Oh, I don't have time for this. I have to go and buy a single piece of fruit with a coupon and then return it, making people wait behind me while I complain.

Professor Farnsworth: Who are those horrible orange creatures over there?Glurmo: Why, those are the Grunka Lunkas. They work here in the Slurm factory.Professor Farnsworth: Tell them I hate them.

Colleen: Have you seen how much cotton candy he can eat?Professor Farnsworth: Oh, my, yes. 5.1 pounds. That's why his blood is so good on pancakes.

Richard Nixon's head: Good evening, ignorant pigs. Put down your crack pipes and your beer bongs and pay attention, as I sign a historic peace accord with ambassador Kong of planet Nintendu 64.Fry: Wait a second, I know that monkey, his name is Donkey!Professor Farnsworth: Monkeys aren't donkeys. Quit messing with my head!

Professor Farnsworth-A: Astonishing! I must have created a parallel universe.Professor Farnsworth-1: Baldercrap! I created your universe. All you created was my fist parallel to your face.

Professor Farnsworth: Now, I've often said "good news" when sending you on a mission of extreme danger. So when I say this anomaly is dangerous, you can imagine how dangerous I really think it is.Hermes: Not dangerous at all?Professor Farnsworth: Actually, quite dangerous indeed.Hermes: That is quite dangerous!Professor Farnsworth: Indeed. Now stop shilly-shallying! Prep the ship and line up for your pre-flight coffee enemas!Enema Bot: Warning. The enema you are about to enjoy is extremely hot.

Professor Farnsworth: Do what you young people do to unwind. Take a joyride in your jalopy. Wear a T-shirt and eat a fish stick. Go!